


to take it slow

by Sroloc_Elbisivni



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wreck-It Ralph Fusion, Background Dick Grayson/Zatanna Zatara - Freeform, F/M, Pre-Slash, Video Game Logic, background M'gann M'orzz/Conner Kent - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-08 14:13:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11083272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sroloc_Elbisivni/pseuds/Sroloc_Elbisivni
Summary: Spitfire Wreck-it-Ralph AU of sorts–Artemis, Solo Mission resident, has very good aim and a bone to pick with one speedy chowhound.Also, lemonade, smuggling, and discussions of what it means to be good or bad.





	to take it slow

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [ misspandalily](misspandalily.tumblr.com) for the YJ Fic Exchange Valentine's Day event. It took me a while to transfer from [ Tumblr.](http://sroloc--elbisivni.tumblr.com/post/157218066344/to-take-it-slow)

“Is it true that you tried using Wally for target practice?”

Artemis looked up from her bow to frown at M’gann, who was hovering nearby in her Ghost skin, just a blur against the dark night sky. It was always night in Solo Mission—added to the drama, supposedly. It got on Artemis’s nerves sometimes.

“He dodged,” Artemis pointed out, flicking off a bit of cotton candy fuzz. “He always dodges. He’s fast, it’s his thing.”

“Artemis…” M’gann shifted into her Alien skin and sat down. “You know, just asking him to go to Tappers with you would probably be an easier way to get his attention.”

Artemis sputtered. “I’m not _trying_ to get his _attention,_ I want him to _leave me alone!”_

“So you went to his game and shot arrows at him?” M’gann reached over to Artemis’s quiver and pulled off a piece of taffy bark before she could deny it. 

“I was making a point,” Artemis said stiffly. “And I didn’t want to risk shooting at him here and having him not regenerate. You think I like pulling sugar off my stuff?”

M’gann continued looking skeptical and Artemis decided it was time to play dirty.

“You know, I was just about to go visit Conner’s corner of the game. He’s been practicing on the wrestling minigame again. Shirtless.” 

M’gan made an adorable squeaking sound and went Ghost, fading into the background and drifting away. Artemis rolled her eyes, slung her bow over her back and jumped up into the trees, sneaking away. 

Artemis was very good at sneaking. It was pretty much a requirement for being a sniper in a game about secret agents and operatives. Cheshire could still pull one over on her when the game was in two-player mode, but Artemis would maintain until their game was unplugged that powerups that could turn you invisible were _cheating._

Speaking of Cheshire, Artemis hadn’t really seen her drifting around the Black Forest lately. As long as she was there at opening time in case someone wanted to select her, though, that wasn’t Artemis’s problem. 

* * *

Artemis made her way to the edge of the game and caught the train out of Solo Mission into the main concourse and then through to Enchantress.  

Zatanna’s home was an example of just how creative bored game designers could get when the laws of physics didn’t have to apply. Staircases ran upside down and backwards, one floor might run directly into the one above it using an ordinary door, and a candle in one corner illuminated the next room over. It was hard to tell what was a glitch and what was intentional, and Zatanna wasn’t telling. Artemis had caught on to the fastest route after a few years visiting the Tower.

She pushed the gems on the wall in the right pattern and a section of bricks slid aside to show the hidden potion market level Zatanna used to host customers. 

Tappers was more popular, and open on a schedule, but Artemis liked the Tower. It was quiet, and had decent drinks, and sometimes Zatanna would whip together potions that tasted strange but made Artemis feel loose and relaxed and less on-edge. Even if she wasn’t there, Artemis had a standing invitation to sit and rest, and it was somewhere reasonably private that wasn’t her barracks bunk at Solo Mission’s HQ or up a tree. 

“Hello? Zee?” Artemis couldn’t see Zatanna behind the counter, so she wandered a little further in and plunked down on one of the stools. Her bow and quiver just fit under the counter, and she made sure to hook her foot through a strap so no one could swipe it. 

Artemis—like Connor, and Cheshire, and everyone else from combat games—was never sure how much of her paranoia had been programmed in and how much was just her. But she didn’t regret it when a blur whooshed out of the back storeroom. 

“Welcome to the Enchantress’s Tower, what can I—oh. It’s you.” 

“Wally.” Artemis propped her chin on one hand, giving him her best dead-eyed stare. “Where’s Zatanna?”

“Over at Skyline, visiting Dick.“

“And you’re here because…?”

“I owed her a favor.” He dusted his hands together quickly, but not so quick that Artemis didn’t catch a glimpse of a red streak. 

“Are you smuggling her boosts from your game again?” Artemis asked. 

“What? No,” Wally blurted out, a little too quickly. 

She kept up the stare. 

“Okay, maybe. A couple. It’s not like anyone else can really use them, they just taste good.”

“And if the Surge Protector catches you, you’ll be in big trouble,” she said flatly. She thought it had been a little too easy to get through the station. He must have been distracted trying to catch contraband. 

“Well someone’s acting pretty holier-than-thou after _shooting arrows_ at me!” he huffed. 

“You _dodged,”_ Artemis snapped, echoing the point she’d made earlier to M’gann. “I knew you could dodge, you knew you could dodge, and even if I had hit you, you were in _your_ game, where you could have just picked up a burrito and been all fine and dandy in five seconds.”

“Burritos plants provide constitution boosts, not healing,” Wally corrected her.

“Right. Because that’s a very important distinction.”

“It is!”

Artemis drummed the fingers of her free hand on the countertop and sighed. “Could I just—get a lemonade? Quickly?”

“Hey, everything I do is quick.”

Artemis let the opportunity for innuendo pass, because she was never sure how much of that kind of thing Wally understood anyways. Her lemonade arrived at a reasonably fast rate, anyways. 

“So eager to get out of here?” he asked, cleaning the juice he’d spilled off the counter. 

“I don’t want to be here if the Surge Protector comes sniffing for contraband,” she admitted, and took a sip of what was actually pretty good lemonade. 

“Why not?”

Artemis snorted into her glass. “Because I’m the first one he’ll look at. Do the words ‘choose your own alignment’ mean anything to you? Solo Mission. One person. One mission. Not always nice. Sometimes I’m the good guy, sometimes I’m the bad guy. It all depends on what whoever’s steering wants. Surge Protector always thinks I’m always ready to pull _something.”_

“But—you wouldn’t.”

“Smuggle contraband? Nah, there’s nothing in my game that’s worth it.”

“No, I mean—be the bad guy. On your own, not what the players pick for you. That doesn’t matter anyways. You’re a good person.”

Artemis looked up at that, surprised. Wally was leaning on the counter, rag tucked under his arms and expression very earnest. She ended up looking down at her glass again, suddenly flustered. “Well—thanks. Wally. You’re a good person too. Smuggling aside.”

He grinned. “Why, thank you.” 

Wally started wiping down glasses and there was a comfortable silence between them for a couple moments, until she blurted out, “I wouldn’t have shot you. Though.”

He looked up, something tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Really?”

“No. I’ve got better aim than that.”

“I know.”

It was a quiet night. He wiped glasses and she drank her lemonade slowly and no one else came in until Zatanna came back looking giggly and it was time for them both to head back to their respective games before the arcade opened. 

* * *

The next night, Artemis was hanging out in a taffy-and-cotton-candy tree again, trying to keep from staying in one place so long she got stuck and watching the path through the level for a running shape. 

This time, she made sure that one of her net arrows was within reach, and when she saw an approaching red blur, she had it ready and arcing away at just the right time. 

The yelp and thud was as satisfying as any victory medal for beating Cheshire or Conner to a target.  

Artemis swung down out of the tree and landed on the grass next to Wally. He was pulling the net off his head, looking exasperated. 

“Told you I had better aim than that.”

He rolled his eyes and tossed the bundle of cords and weights at her. “You could have just asked me to slow down.”

“I know.” She stuck the bundle under her head and leaned back to use it as a pillow, enjoying the sight of the bright blue sky. “This was more fun.“

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Owl City.
> 
> I like to imagine that Wally's nameless game is sort of like Sonic, in that he runs around picking up food and powerups and things which he then smuggles in a bootleg operation. Zatanna's Tower is a puzzle game with a bunch of different levels and tricks and things. Solo Mission is like...a secret agent game? Where they run missions against each other or against player characters? Can you tell I know very little about arcade games? 
> 
> I had so much fun writing this au. I don't write much for YJ anymore but it still holds a soft spot in my squishy little heart.


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